The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

38 THE MYSTICAL HYMNS
Self-born, with primogenial fires 35 you shine,
And various names, and strength of heart are thine :
light. From this heaven and earth resident in the intel-
lectual Phanes, Orpheus, according to Proclus, derives the
sublunary orders of the Gods ; and among these (vid. Procl.
in Tim. p. 295), he enumerates the following progeny of
the intellectual earth. " She produced seven beautiful pure
virgins with voluble eyes, and seven sons, all of them kings,
and covered with downy hair. The daughters are Themis
and prudent Tethys, and fair-haired Mnemosy ne and blessed
Thea ; together with Dione, having an illustrious form, and
Phcebe, and Rhea the mother of king Jupiter. Moreover,
this illustrious earth generated celestial sons, which are
also surnamed Titans, because they took revenge on the
great starry Heaven ; and these are Cseus, and great Craeus,
and robust Phorcys, and Saturn, and Ocean, and Hyperion,
and Jupiter." Now as Hercules is celebrated in this hymn
as the Sun, and the Sun is the same with Hyperion, the
reason is obvious why Hercules is called " Earth's best
blossom." And we shall find that Saturn, in the follow-
ing hymn, is called " blossom of Earth ;" and Themis, in
hymn 79, " Young blossom of Earth ; " and the Titans, in
hymn 37, " The illustrious progeny of Heaven and Earth."
Again,
Phanes, as we are informed by Athenagoras, is denomi-
nated by Orpheus Hercules and Time. Hence, we see the
reason why Hercules in this hymn is said "to shine with
primogenial fires ; " since he is no other than Protogonus in
the intelligible and intellectual worlds, and the Sun in the
sensible world. Or in conformity to the Orphic theory
mentioned in the Introduction, it may be said that he is
celebrated with solar epithets, as being one of the satellites
of the Sun.
35 In the editions of Gesner and Hermann we have in this
place pohcurv, and in the edition of Eschenbach $oXtcri ; but